abcdabcd, good news! No need to be an alcoholic to join/start a 12-step program! GA would fit you like hand and glove!

abcdabcd, good news! No need to be an alcoholic to join/start a 12-step program! GA would fit you like hand and glove!

abcabcd, surely anyone living a life of an alcoholic, drinking to the point of blackout, and losing relationships, jobs, homes etc, and being unable to stop, IS suffering a form of insanity. In the UK many Mental Hospitals actually have alcohol dependency treatment units within.

I think it's fantastic that the OP has had such success in reaching his life of sobriety, through whatever means, and if you can't see that he was using the lightbulb example just to illustrate his point about the Higher Power, then your obviously a bit of a window licker.

For abcabcd - - if you don't want to believe in something - OK - - - but must you run down everyone who does believe? Sounds to me like you need help. Come to Texas and we'll fix you up!!

I just did a bit of research. The original name of AA was "First Century Christian Fellowship".

It's quite clear to me from reading the 12-step program that indoctrination is at the heart of what AA is all about, maybe even more than helping people recover. And basically, I think that AA is a cult.

Personally, if I had a drinking problem, I would seek an alternative to AA for help.

Sure, someone who drinks excessively probably has issues to deal with. But labeling it as "insanity" is a form of dis-empowerment. That's what cults like to do - have power over helpless people.

Maybe rather than go to AA, I would just go to a therapist/counselor. Maybe there are just issues in one's life that caused a lot of trauma that has lead a person to drink excessively and once these issues are discussed with a therapist, the issues can be brought to the surface and the drinking can be contained.

I'm fine. Texas Boy. I'm just expressing my opinion. That's not ok with you?

What do you propose to do to me in Texas? Aren't you the guy who solves all his problems with guns? Maybe YOU need help? Where do all your violent tendencies come from? Was your father a drunk who beat you?

Texas Boy, I just did a bit of research about your background since you attacked me/threatened me. I don't think it's a coincidence that you're from Texas and you're using bullying threatening language.

Are these kinds of statistics something to be proud of? Seriously, if I were you, I would go to therapy and examine the dark parts of the psyche that you inherited from your upbringing to try to find out why your culture is so violent. Good luck!

And no, I will never set foot in Texas. It seems like you people are stuck in the Dark Ages out there.

"During the 1990s, Texas added more prisoners to its prison system (+98,081) than New York's entire prison population (73,233) by some 24,848 prisoners. This means that the number of prisoners that Texas added during the 1990s was 34% higher than New York's entire prison population."

Golly - - abcd - - how did you figger I was threatening you? I said . . . "Come to Texas and we'll fix you up" Perhaps that was meant in the most positive way. Not everyone runs everyone else down!!

Texas Boy, are you an internet persons invented to troll here, a big Texan whooping and hollering about guns, or are you for real? I do not mean that as an insult, but I really want to know.

For real - - raised with guns on the ranch - - and they were/are just a necessary tool!